Galactic Empire
The Galactic Empire (Japanese: 銀河帝国) was an interstellar nation which encompassed most of the human colony worlds within the galaxy. Ruled by a kaiser (or emperor), the Empire was, for much of its history, structured around a rigid European-style feudal system. The Galactic Empire was established in by Rudolf von Goldenbaum, the first emperor of the Goldenbaum Dynasty. Its flag was the white crest of the Goldenbaum Dynasty, a stylised crowned two headed eagle, on a black background. Following numerous social and political reforms after the Imperial Civil War, the Galactic Empire was eventually reorganized into the New Galactic Empire in . History Precursors to Empire The history of the Galactic Empire began with the Golden Age of Humanity: under the supervision of the Galactic Federation, humankind spread out across the galaxy: exploring, settling, discovering. For two centuries humanity enjoyed an age of unprecedented peace and prosperity. But it was not to last. By the third century of the Universal Calendar, the galaxy had entered into a period of stagnation. The great Galactic Federation was decaying, rotting from the inside. Desperate to restore their nation to its former glory, the people of the Federation turned to a war hero-turned-politician to guide them. In , Rudolf von Goldenbaum was elected to Parliament. He founded the National Reform Alliance, a radical right-wing political party that gained complete control of the Federation government in a single decade. The NRA propelled Rudolf to the heights of Federation power: by he was both the Prime Minister and the President of the Federation — and the single most powerful man in human history. Rudolf's determination and will became the guiding light of the Galactic Federation. His reforms curtailed many basic freedoms of the Federation citizens, yes, but crime and delinquency rates fell to unheard of lows. In Rudolf declared himself "president for life," and the people cheered. Two years later (in he proclaimed himself the first emperor of the Galactic Federation, and there were endless parades in his honor. Laying the Foundation The vestiges of democracy did not die quietly. Upon his ascension to the throne, Emperor Rudolf von Goldenbaum immediately set to the task of reforging the Federation into a true Empire. For an entire decade, he consolidated his power, and in Rudolf announced the Inferior Genes Exclusion Act, a galaxy-wide policy of mass-murder and persecution. People with lifestyles or genetic conditions deemed unhealthy to the state were sterilized, imprisoned and executed.Most social welfare programs were abolished. The Department of Social Discipline was founded — a secret police force that enforced Rudolf's reign of terror, brutalizing the people and executing any deemed enemies of the state. From his allies, Rudolf formed an Imperial aristocracy — the Nobility — to serve as the backbone of his Empire. These plutocrats would soon come to control virtually all of the wealth and power in the Galaxy. The old Imperial Senate, which had been formed from the parliament which had governed the Federation for centuries, was permanently dissolved; freedom of speech rescinded. millions perished in the fires of Rudolf's revolution: and those who survived kept quiet, for fear of their own mortality. ( ) Uprising and Revolt When Rudolf von Goldenbaum died in , the people of the Empire rejoiced. The civilized worlds of the galaxy erupted in democratic revolution. Finally, it seemed the Empire's reign of terror would disappear and the worlds would once more regain the freedoms they had lost. With Rudolf's death, the dream of freedom was rekindled in the heart of every citizen on every world. But such dreams seldom come true. Rudolf's aristocracy was powerful. Rudolf's heir and grandson, Kaiser Sigismund I aided by his father and Prime Minister, Joachim von Neue Stauffen, brutally quelled each revolt one after another. To punish them for their vain hopes, the free citizens of the Galactic Empire found themselves stripped of what few rights they had remaining. No longer citizens, they became serfs. Forced to live servile lives to the plutocrat nobles, no longer capable of commanding their own destinies. Sigismund I's reign was brutal, and despite all of the blood spilled (or perhaps because of it), it was instrumental in consolidating the Empire's power and firmly establishing it as the sole and permanent government of all humanity. Though there was still widespread discontent among the Empire's population, most now reduced to serfdom, the oppressed found themselves too terrified of the Kaiser to even consider opposing him. This constant state of fear would ensure the Empire's survival through the succession of rulers who would succeed Sigismund I to the throne, and ensure the unquestioned authority of the Empire for centuries. ( , Legend of Galactic Heroes Encyclopedia) The Great War In the Galactic Empire made first contact with the Free Planets Alliance, and began the FPA–Imperial War. Founded more than a century prior in by the exiles of Arle Heinnesen, the Free Planets Alliance was a democratic nation, founded in direct opposition to Imperial ideology. Refusing to recognise the Alliance government and decrying the Alliance as rebels mounting an insurrection against the throne, Kaiser Friedrich III dispatched an Imperial fleet under the command of Grand Duke Herbert through the Iserlohn Corridor to invade the Alliance. From the time of Rudolf I, the Empire had been undefeated in battle, and since the reign of Sigismund I, the Empire had never faced any legitimate threats to its authority; the high nobles therefore naturally assumed that their invasion of the Alliance would be no different — and were stunned when the Alliance forces, under the command of Admiral Lin Pao, defeated the Imperial fleet in what would later be known as the Battle of Dagon. The defeat would trigger a mass exodus of refugees, dissidents, disaffected nobles, and criminal elements to the Alliance, swiftly increasing its size and power. By , the Empire's total population was estimated to be around 25 billion. ( ) The Imperial Civil War In November of , the emperor of the Galactic Empire, Kaiser Friedrich IV died suddenly of a heart attack. Leaving no male heirs, the Imperial Court was thrown into chaos as it tried to determine Friedrich IV's successor. Three potential candidates to the Goldenbaum crown soon emerged: Elisabeth von Braunschweig, supported by her father, Otto von Braunschweig; Sabine von Littenheim, supported by her father as well, the Marquis Littenheim; and lastly Erwin Josef II, Friedrich's five-year old grandson, supported by Imperial Prime Minister, Klaus von Lichtenlade. All three candidates for the throne were supported by powerful nobles, but only one would gain the support the the Imperial Fleet as well: High Admiral of the Imperial Fleet, Reinhard von Lohengramm lent his considerable power to the cause of Erwin Josef II and duly crowned him as Kaiser. The political alliance between Reinhard and the prime minister, Lichtenlade, frightened many of the High Nobles. This fear prompted Littenheim and Braunschweig to put aside their own dispute and form the Lippstadt Alliance, gathering many other fearful High Nobles to their cause. ( ) The Lippstadt League conspire against the Imperial Government, planning to launch a preemptive assault on the Imperial Capital to arrest both Lichtenlade and Reinhard. Information of the planned coup leaked to Reinhard von Lohengramm's admiralty, however, and he moved immediately to arrest the conspirators for treason. Of the total 3760 High Nobles that joined the Lippstadt League, 625 were arrested, but the ringleaders of the conspiracy, Littenheim and Braunschweig, managed to escape Odin. Together, they fled to Geiersburg Fortress and marshaled their forces, determined to settle things with Reinhard on the field of battle. ( ) Though ostensibly under the authority of High Admiral Merkatz, the Lippstadt Alliance's fleets were undisciplined and disordered. After suffering a string of defeats, the League was forced to withdraw to the immediate vicinity of Geiersberg, and were soon encircled by Reinhard's forces. While waiting in isolation inside the safety of Geiersburg, Braunschweig learned of a peasant revolt on the planet Westerland, one of his fiefs. Incensed at the temerity of the peasants, Braunschweig ordered a nuclear attack on the world. Though Reinhard von Lohengramm learned of Braunschweig's attack in advance of it, due to the manuevering of Paul von Oberstein he was unable to prevent the massacre. After a particularly bloody attempt to break the siege, led by Baron Flegel ended in failure, the Imperial Fleets, fully unified by their hatred of the High Nobles' thanks in no small part to the massacre at Westerland, managed to conquer Geierberg fortress with relative ease. The leader of the Lippstadt Alliance, Otto von Braunschweig, committed suicide rather than be captured to stand trial for his sins. ( ) Shortly after the defeat of the Lippstadt Alliance at Geiersberg, an assassin attempted to murder Reinhard von Lohengramm. The assassin failed, killing Imperial High Admiral Siegfried Kircheis instead. Reinhard's chief advisor, Paul von Oberstein, declared that the conspirators in the assassination attempt had to be brought to justice: furthermore, he declared that Reinhard's one-time ally, Prime Minister Klaus von Lichtenlade, was the culprit. Two Imperial fleets led by Oskar von Reuenthal and Wolfgang Mittermeyer were dispatched to Odin with all possible haste. Thousands of warships descended through the skies of the Imperial City: Oskar von Reuenthal seized the Imperial Seal, the symbol of the emperor's authority, at Neue Sanssouci; Mittermeyer arrested Lichtenlade, and forced him to commit suicide. ( ) By the time the bulk of Reinhard's fleets reached Odin, the Imperial capital world was completely under his control. Erwin Josef II, 37th Kaiser of the Goldenbaum Dynasty, ruled in name only as now Duke Reinhard von Lohengramm himself ruled over the Empire as both Fleet Admiral and Commander of the Imperial Fleet and Prime Minister of the Empire. ( ) Reformation and War The Empire saw numerous democratic reforms upon the ascension of the 37th Kaiser, Erwin Josef II, to the throne in . These reforms were instigated by the newly-appointed Prime Minister, Reinhard von Lohengramm, who set about restoring to the people the various rights and liberties that had been stripped from them by Rudolf von Goldenbaum so many centuries earlier. The Empire's finances were restored through confiscation of the assets of the defeated nobles of the Lippstadt Alliance. ( ) Eager to maintain the war against the Free Planets Alliance, Reinhard authorised a bold plan to pit Geiersberg Fortress directly against Iserlohn Fortress in what would become the Eighth Battle of Iserlohn. The Imperial fleets and fortress were defeated, and Admiral Karl Gustav Kempf lost his life in the attack. ( ) On July 6, , the young Emperor of the empire, Erwin Josef II, was abducted by former High Nobles and taken to the Free Planets Alliance, where he became the figurehead of a government-in-exile. In order to punish the remaining high-nobles who had escaped justice at the end of the Imperial Civil War, Reinhard von Lohengramm organized an invasion of the Free Planets Alliance, code-named Operation Ragnarok. ( ) Shortly after the 8-month old Catherine I was crowned Kaiserin of the Galactic Empire, Operation Ragnarok Commenced: while the FPA was distracted by the Seventh Battle of Tiamat, multiple Imperial fleets penetrated Alliance territory through the Fezzan Corridor. The Free Planets Alliance mustered its forces at the Battle of Rantemario, but were defeated. Once more, the Imperial Fleets engaged the FPA fleets (this time under the command of admiral Yang Wen-li at the Battle of Vermilion, but once again the Imperial forces were victorious. Although Yang Wen-li managed a tactical victory of Reinhard's forces, he was forced to surrender to the Imperial Fleet after Wolfgang Mittermeyer and Oskar von Reuenthal assaulted the Alliance Capital, Heinessen, and the High Council surrendered to the Galactic Empire unconditionally. ( ) Hostilities between the Empire and the Alliance were formally ended in May with the Treaty of Barlat. The following month, Catherine von Goldenbaum's regent would abdicate the Imperial throne, and Reinhard von Lohengramm would become the first emperor of the New Galactic Empire. ( ) Imperial Society Politics As the nobility tightened its grip on Imperial power, they gradually abolished the process of promotion. In the earliest years of the Empire, common citizens who sufficiently proved their value or ability could be elevated to the ranks of nobility (or even purchase a noble title, should their own merits prove insufficient). This process of promotion allowed for a degree of upward social mobility in Imperial society, giving hope to even the lowest social classes that, through hard work, they could make a better life for themselves. Naturally, the high nobles were wary of any competition, and within a century, such hopes were futile. Imperial society — art, politics, literature, and music — entered a long period of stagnation when the aristocracy almost ceased the practice of 'ascending' regular citizens into their ranks entirely. Economy the Galactic Empire was organized as a feudal state, with individual planets being little more than the private fiefdoms of local lords. The outlying regions of the Empire (possibly equivalent to the Frontier Worlds of the old Federation) were mostly pastoral, agrarian worlds, with only a few planets being fully industrialized, economic hubs. Deriving their power directly from the Kaiser, the nobles were given complete freedom with regard to their treatment (and and governance) of their serfs, who were regarded as little more than property. Relations between the noble houses, however, were considerably more regulated. Property disputes were arbitrated by government officials, but could be settled privately, with a joust or duel. The courts were also known to almost (universally) favor noble families over commoners. The major noble houses amassed great estates and vast private wealth. Those nobles that participated in the Lippstadt Alliance would have most of their wealth confiscated by the victorious Reinhard von Lohengramm to replenish the national treasury. Corruption Since breeding was the biggest factor in one's social status, Imperial society bent itself in favour of nobility. In the military, high nobles often were promoted simply for being of the nobility. Fleet commanders were such because of their blood and not because of their capability. Lesser nobles and commoners simply had to appease a given high noble to progress in life. Because high nobles and commanding officers often used bribery and embezzling, company grade officers likewise resorted to such tactics. High nobles also felt entitled to steal from the good of the Empire to pursue their own interests. The corruption and inefficiency within the Empire meant that despite having more territory and nearly double the population of the Free Planets Alliance, the Empire as a nation had only 20% more power than the Alliance as of prior to the Battle of Astarte. ( ) Appendices Background information *The Galactic Empire refers to the Alliance simply as the 'rebels'. A more accurate translation might be the 'rebel alliance', as the Japanese words used are identical to those used in the Japanese translation of Star Wars for the 'Galactic Empire' and 'Rebel Alliance', respectively. *The Lippstadt Alliance is given the name 'rebel fleet' by Reinhard after they retreat to Geiersberg: this is the same name used to refer to the Free Planets Alliance fleet, and serves as an ironic piece of propaganda associating the Reinhard/Lichtenlade alliance as the legitimate imperial government, and the high nobles as traitors. Galactic empire